Viewpoint

David writes:

The usual way I start my day is getting into the office at about 5.30am and complete all my emails that have come in overnight before the ANZ Bloodstock News comes through. I find the ANZ Bloodstock News is one of the very best ways to catch up on racing and breeding around the world and you can register for it at www.anzbloodstocknews.com.

It arrives in our in boxes at about 6.15am, seven days a week and the one thing that staggered me this morning was news from Victoria, Australia which I thought I would share with you.

The headline reads:

PREMIER OF VICTORIA AND MINISTER  FOR RACING DENNIS NAPTHINE ANNOUNCES A $3.2 MILLION UPGRADE TO BRING SANDOWN RACECOURSE BACK TO TOP CONDITION.

Dr Napthine said that the replacement of the course proper would ensure that Sandown continued to be a premier metropolitan venue for thoroughbred racing. The current surface has been in place for almost 30 years and over the past couple of years it has struggled to provide a consistent racing service for the lakeside and hillside tracks, Dr Napthine continued.

Dr Napthine also said the multi-million dollar upgrade is a vote of confidence in the importance of Sandown Racecourse by the government!

Well the point I am making is how can we possibly compete with Australia when almost every single week various Australian state governments - as well as the federal Government - make announcements like this? They understand the vital importance and significant economic impact of the racing industry.

Wouldn't it be marvellous if our New Zealand government finally realised that an industry that employs 40,000 (mostly young) people is worth some level of support?

The story concluded with the Victoria Government announcing how proud it was to support this project through the A$79.5 million Victorian Racing Fund which is dedicated to improving racing and training facilities across the state.

All our Government does is take, take, take. Just to give you one example of how our government benefits from us in a very small way:  this month we paid $11,000 in ACC levies, $ 55,000 in GST and $48,000 in PAYE - all taxes. Surely a government that collects this sort of money from the racing industry has a responsibility to put something back in?